Leon Black and Jeffrey Epstein: Who Paid Whom?

Here is what we know about Jeffrey Epstein: He's serving 18 months in jail for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution; he counts Bill Clinton and Donald Trump among his friends; he lost a bundle in the Bear Stearns hedge funds last summer.

Here's what we don't know about Jeffrey Epstein: How in the world he makes so much money. The self-proclaimed money manager for billionaires has publicly disclosed just one client, Limited Brands founder Leslie Wexler.

So who are the rest of the suckers that paid as much as $100 million annually to Epstein to manage their money? Plenty of moguls are suspected as clients, but Cityfile adds a new name to the mix today: Leon Black.

Black, who co-founded the private equity firm Apollo Management after his lucrative years at Drexel Burnham Lambert, named Epstein to the board of his Leon D. Black Foundation. Cityfile unearthed the charity's IRS filing, which includes Epstein's name and Palm Beach County address.

Black has been connected to Epstein before, in a 2005 profile in Vanity Fair, as a dinner companion of Epstein's, along with the likes of Mort Zuckerman, Nathan Myrhvold, and Ron Perelman.

But just because Black and Epstein were dinner companions and Epstein served on Black's foundation's board does not mean that Black was a client of Epstein's.

Think about it. Leon Black is a money manager -- and a good one, at that. He was one of the earliest stars in the leveraged buyout industry and he continues to make piles of cash by investing in distressed companies. Epstein is a former math teacher who claims to charge his clients flat fees ranging from $25 million to $100 million a year.

It's more likely that any business relationship between Epstein and Black was the other way around -- Epstein likely invested in Apollo's funds.

Indeed, it might very well be true that astronomical fees were exchanged between Epstein and Black. But who collected them and who paid them? You decide.

by Megan Barnett